Can FIAT Re-Establish Itself in India?

. This is a discussion on Can FIAT Re-Establish Itself in India? within Indian Auto Sector. Part of The Auto Talk category; They couldnt show Panda-one of the most promising and potential cars from thier line up.
Shame ....

This was just an amazing event !!! Hats off to the organisers and to FIAT for making such an event happen. People put in their heart and soul to make this mega event happen and were blown away by FIAT's hospitality. Fantastic gesture by FIAT

Fiat has confirmed the production of the compact Jeep SUV and their own 500X (inset, taken during a tease).

It is certainly a good news for India as Fiat-Chrysler has announced 9 new products for us including B segment Fiat and Jeep SUVs. Both the products will be crucial for Fiat Group’s renewed attempt at cracking the Indian market.
Fiat Group’s chairman Mr. John Elkann and CEO Mr. Sergio Marchionne along with Italian Prime Minister Mr. Mario Monti announced the company’s future plans on the Melfi manufacturing facility yesterday. Both compact SUVs will be built at the completely modernized facility starting from 2014.
According to Fiat, the Melfi plant is being extensively modified and renovated to make it one of the most advanced automobile manufacturing facilities in the world with stringent quality standards. The preparations have already commenced.
The assembly line of the plant is being modified to accommodate the production of the modular Small Wide platform which will underpin a wide range of SUVs from Jeep and Fiat portfolio in future. The €1 billion worth investment also includes 500 new welding robots, new panel and body welding lines, a hi-tech paint shop and a metrologically equipped stamping shop.
Once the upgrades are in place, the Melfi plant will have the flexibility to produce four different vehicles in the same assembly line and will have a production capacity of 1,600 vehicles per day across 3 shifts.
The plant will be the only production base for the baby Jeep and Fiat plans to export most of Melfi’s produce. We except to see this Jeep model sent to the Ranjangaon plant as a CKD.
We can expect the Jeep’s compact SUV heading our way shortly after the Melfi plant starts production.

“We are studying opportunities in the LCV segment. A final decision has not been made yet, but we are looking at how to bring products from Fiat Professional at competitive price points to the Indian market,“ said Enrico Atanasio, managing director, Fiat Group Automobiles India Pvt Ltd.

Fiat cars are good and stable but the maintenance and spares costs much more compared to maruti suzuki in india so it may be a bit difficult for fiat in indian market,for maruti cars spares very next to MGP are easily available and more economical in local market and this is one of the reason maruti has good re-sale value.

Fiat India MD Enrico Antasnio has evinced interest to export Indian made Fiat Linea and Punto to right hand drive markets such as UK, Japan, Africa and Australia.
The move makes sense because Fiat’s Ranjangaon plant near Pune, which can manufacture 1.35 lakh cars annually, is only utilized to 50% of its capacity. Most automakers in India such as Hyundai, Maruti Suzuki and Renault-Nissan have adopted a similar strategy to fully utilize their capacity.
The idea is that the Indian market is still evolving and large part of the Indian market is still incredibly low price and low profit. So most automakers in India adopted a strategy which made sure they had a sustainable base that included export.

Fiat India plans to build its premium hatchback Abarth at its plant Ranjangaon near Pune as it aims at selling 25,000 vehicles in 2013. .

Fiat has plans to launch nine brands during the year, including two luxury SUV models "Wrangler' and Grand Cherokee to double its sales. This is in addition to bringing the Jeep brand and work on an entry level SUV and a mini Jeep for consumers in the country.

Fiat, which will go solo from April 2013 in India after its split with Tata Motors, plans to add exclusive dealerships, especially in South India, where there is a significant customer base. The Ranjangaon plant can produce nearly 200,000 units a year and Tata Motors plans to make its export vehicles over there.

Well first lets have a look at Fiat's history and record in India. If we go by that than we can assume that first of all Fiat will stop selling Punto and Linea when the sales figures will reach to zero. Than they will have a break for a while and will come back with couple of new unknown models and will start doing business. Then again they will repeat the same after 5-6 years. They never concentrated on their existing models and never continued after sales support for longer period and left their loyal customers in helpless situation.

This is how Fiat works in India. They are more than happy by selling their MJD engines to various other companies and it is more profit making for them compared to their car sales business in India.

Fiat cars are good and stable but the maintenance and spares costs much more compared to maruti suzuki in india so it may be a bit difficult for fiat in indian market,for maruti cars spares very next to MGP are easily available and more economical in local market and this is one of the reason maruti has good re-sale value.

Que -Just imagine maruti suzuki devoid of fiat , what are the remains ?
Ans- Fragility , manually flexible tin , and off course , MGP.
If word fiat is removed from them we will have to come up with a similar thread on this forum i.e.Can MSIL Re-Establish Itself in India?

Now, since fiat has invested heavily on new and separate dealerships on prime location s , they don't have option left other than improvement in ASS .

Que -Just imagine maruti suzuki devoid of fiat , what are the remains ?
Ans- Fragility , manually flexible tin , and off course , MGP.
If word fiat is removed from them we will have to come up with a similar thread on this forum i.e.Can MSIL Re-Establish Itself in India?

Now, since fiat has invested heavily on new and separate dealerships on prime location s , they don't have option left other than improvement in ASS .

Suzuki petrol engines are far more reliable and preferred than fiat engines.

e.g. Check swift k series against Fiat fire.

A manufacture not making a new engine rather buying it could be money saved (saving on RnD)

Suzuki petrol engines are far more reliable and preferred than fiat engines.

e.g. Check swift k series against Fiat fire.

A manufacture not making a new engine rather buying it could be money saved (saving on RnD)

Jayadev, This is no a justified comparo...

The FIRE from FIAT is an old engine whereas K Series is brand new engine. As with everything a newer item will be better than older. If you want to compare then compare with Multi-Air engine. And in that case the Suzuki one will be left wanting...

A manufacture not making a new engine rather buying it could be money saved (saving on RnD)

Yes , agreed , and they save not only on R & D but also on money to be spent on advertisement and image building.For eg.Wagonr k series .They replaced 1.1 lit 4 cylinder engine with the underpowered 1 lit 3 cylinder engine of astar and they changed the design too, but made no change in the name as name wagonr was already established in the market and they didn't wanted to loose the custemers who blindly believe in the names and image.
One more example is New DZire.

Is it possible for fiat to take such establishment related tactics taking clue fromMSIL.?